In a November 1981 anonymous interview with political scientist Alexander Lamis, Republican strategist Lee Atwater provided an extraordinarily candid explanation of how the GOP uses coded racial appeals. Atwater explained: ‘You start out in 1954 by saying, “Nigger, nigger, nigger.” …
Lee AtwaterAlexander LamisRepublican Partyracial-politicsdog-whistle-politicspolitical-strategyrepublican-partysouthern-strategy+1 more
Ronald Reagan opened his general election campaign at the Neshoba County Fair in Philadelphia, Mississippi—just seven miles from where Ku Klux Klan members had murdered civil rights workers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner in 1964. In his first major speech after the Republican …
Ronald ReaganRepublican Partyracial-politicsdog-whistle-politicspolitical-strategyrepublican-partysouthern-strategy+2 more
Richard Nixon won the presidency with a strategy devised by political consultant Kevin Phillips that explicitly targeted white racial resentment to break up the New Deal coalition. Phillips, who worked on Nixon’s campaign, told journalists during the election that ’the whole secret of …
Richard NixonKevin PhillipsH.R. HaldemanGeorge WallaceRepublican Partyracial-politicsdog-whistle-politicspolitical-strategyrepublican-partysouthern-strategy+1 more
President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act of 1965 into law, outlawing discriminatory voting practices that have disenfranchised millions of African Americans since Reconstruction. The legislation passes the Senate 77-19 on May 26 and the House 333-85 on July 9, overcoming a 24-day …
President Lyndon B. JohnsonMartin Luther King Jr.John LewisSouthern Democratic SenatorsRichard Russellvoting-rightscivil-rightssouthern-strategyinstitutional-resistancevoter-suppression
President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964 into law, prohibiting discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin in employment and public accommodations. The legislation passes only after defeating a 60-working-day filibuster led by the “Southern …
President Lyndon B. JohnsonSouthern Democratic SenatorsRichard RussellStrom ThurmondSouthern business interests+1 morecivil-rightsinstitutional-capturesouthern-strategycorporate-resistancevoting-rights
The 1964 Barry Goldwater presidential campaign galvanizes a grassroots coalition of businesspeople, Southerners, Midwesterners, and libertarians who feel sidelined by the Republican establishment, establishing political infrastructure and strategies that become standard tenets of Republican politics …
Barry GoldwaterJohn M. AshbrookWilliam A. RusherF. Clifton WhiteJohn Birch Society+1 moreconservative-movementgoldwaterbusiness-political-mobilizationjohn-birch-societysouthern-strategy+1 more
President Eisenhower signed the Civil Rights Act of 1957, the first federal civil rights legislation since Reconstruction, establishing the Civil Rights Division within the Department of Justice and authorizing federal prosecutors to seek injunctions against interference with voting rights. However, …
Dwight D. EisenhowerLyndon B. JohnsonStrom ThurmondRichard RussellAttorney General Herbert Brownell+1 morevoting-rightscivil-rightsfederal-legislationfilibustersouthern-strategy+1 more
The White Citizens’ Councils reach peak membership of between 250,000 and 300,000 individuals in 1956, establishing a national body known as the Citizens’ Councils of America. The movement, led by Mississippi Circuit Court Judge Tom P. Brady and first formed on July 11, 1954 in response …
White Citizens' CouncilsTom P. BradyRoss BarnettAllen C. ThompsonM. Ney Williamssegregationwhite-supremacybusiness-elitecorporate-resistancecivil-rights-opposition+1 more
On July 17, 1948, approximately 6,000 Southern Democrats from 13 states converge on Birmingham, Alabama, to form the States’ Rights Democratic Party (Dixiecrats) after walking out of the Democratic National Convention in protest of the party’s civil rights platform. The convention …
Strom ThurmondFielding L. WrightStates Rights Democratic PartyDemocratic PartyAlabama delegation+1 moreracial-politicssegregationsouthern-strategystates-rightspolitical-realignment